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VIDEO: Help Can Come from an Unexpected Source

Daniela Salinas’ access to quality child care has been limited by high costs. Like many states around the nation the cost of child care in her home state is more expensive than college tuition. Watch as Daniela shares how voucher and subsidy programs help families make child care more affordable and enabled her to finish college. Then, check out our 2017 Parents and the High Cost of Child Care report to find out how affordable child care is in your state.

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Daniela’s story is a small victory among a nation of lower class parents who are unable to move out of poverty. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliations Act forces parents into the workforce in order to receive financial assistance; however, entering into the work force means parents must find childcare. Public policies are heavily lacking when it comes to offering parents affordable and quality childcare options. According to, Child care policy: A need for greater advocacy (2011), “[c]hildren in poverty are the most vulnerable to the gap in child care policy” (p. 1160). In Daniela’s case, she contributes CCDF (Child Care and Development Fund) for her success in her achievement of her post-secondary education due to the high cost of childcare. She mentions early in the video that before being connected to CCDF most of her single parent income was going towards childcare. Without public family policies such as CCDF, Daniela would likely not have been able to build up a savings, pay for her education, and obtain quality and affordable childcare for her son. This would have likely made it increasingly difficult for her to move out of poverty and decreased her son’s odds of obtaining success later in his own life.

Stories such as hers highlight the need for reform in family policy. It is reported that a mere one third of parents in need of childcare assistance meet eligibility requirements for CCDF, which can be attributed to a lack of funding (Palley; Shdaimah, 2011, p.1161). When families are unable to place their children in quality childcare programs, the impacts spread beyond the immediate family and into the larger surrounding economy. Family Policy Matters (2014) states: “for each dollar that is invested in high-quality childhood education programs, a state’s economy will yield a two to three dollar return on investment as measured by increased jobs or earnings for state residents” (p. 164). The reverse is true when quality early childhood programs are not accessible to working parents. Lack of accessible quality early education programs impact higher rates of juvenile delinquency, longer terms on aid, and lower rates of high school graduation. These findings, among other science-based research, support the need for more family policies (such as CCDF) and support the idea that programs like this one are worth investing in.